Obviously the Bruins’ inability to get anything in return for Marco Sturm has left some scratching their heads.

There have been few situations (or maybe none) since the adoption of the NHL salary cap in 2005 that have resulted in a team having to just give away a player to get under the cap. Even the cap-strapped Chicago Blackhawks were able to import assets via trade last summer when they knew they were going to be up against the cap.

Today on the Felger & Mazz Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub here in Boston, Bruins President Cam Neely explained that the Bruins spent beyond the cap, utilizing Long Term Injured Reserve, in order to take their time to weigh their options. Once Marc Savard and Marco Sturm were ready to play again, hard decisions had to be made.

“I wouldn’t say that there are deals that we made that we regret going into this season [with]. I’m fairly confident that everybody here would feel that we made the deals that have helped our club,” Neely explained when asked if the team regrets any deals it has signed. “This situation about the cap … we knew that we would have some opportunities to use LTI going into the season with Marco’s situation, and then obviously with Marc Savard’s situation. So we knew that we were going to be able to use some of that cap space and we tried to take advantage of that.

“But having done that, we know we’ve got to get cap compliant when these players are ready to come back into the lineup. With regard to some of the moves, the current moves were made to try to get cap compliant. It gave us an opportunity to evaluate Matt Hunwick a little bit longer and see what our defense corps … coming into this season, guys like [Steve] Kampfer and [Matt] Bartkowski were pushing on our D; they had really good camps. So it gave us an opportunity to really see what we could do there to improve our club.

“And then with regard to Marco, it gave us an opportunity to get [Brad] Marchand in the lineup and see what he could do. With [Tyler] Seguin, do we keep him, not keep him? So it allowed us to look at some of these other guys before he had to really get cap compliant. And then we had to make decisions on what’s going to be the best moves for the club that still gives us opportunities to win hockey games and be a successful team this year.”

Using up so much cap space that when a player who’s a perennial 20-goal-scorer is ready to play you’re forced to just give him a way is not a great way to sustain a franchise’s run of success. Obviously, the Bruins probably wouldn’t have gotten much for Hunwick or Michael Ryder (if they ever considered parting with him) last summer, and Sturm’s injury made him untradeable.

But I would contend there’s obviously a disconnect in terms of the organization’s confidence in its players and prospects. There’s no way to 100 percent project a player’s performance, especially when he’s taking on NHL competition for the first time. But if there was any chance Kampfer and Bartkowski were going to be NHL-ready, maybe you don’t need to re-sign Mark Stuart, Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ference for $7.175 million combined.

If Marchand, Seguin and Jordan Caron are ready to play in the NHL — and odds are, at least one of three is going to make the jump — then you don’t have to bring back Blake Wheeler at $2.2 million and definitely don’t need Daniel Paille at $1.075 million for two years (that’s right, a two-year deal for a healthy scratch).

This is not an indictment on any of those returning players. The point is, maybe you can bargain harder to bring them back at less money if you have confidence that you can replace them, if they leave, with an in-house candidate. The Bruins and every NHL team talk non-stop about “building through the draft in the salary-cap era.” Well, then build through the draft (and trades for prospects) and get a better grasp of when those guys are going to fill a role with the big club so you’re not paying someone three times as much to do the same job.

Then maybe you can avoid giving away one of your leading goal-scorers, and also leave yourself in a better position to improve the team during the season. The Bruins are going to now find that trading in-season leading up to the deadline is going to be difficult — they’re going to need to move money to bring in money — and could result in them finally parting with someone they value, or not getting a deal done at all.

The Bruins’ cap crunch could have repercussions for months ahead, and probably didn’t end with giving up a solid asset in Sturm.

First of all, if we could package Wheels to get a #2 defensemen, I am definitely down, without argument. I would love that. I also agree that Caron bears a lot of the same potential, even more. Wheeler is a better skater though.

Coming into the season I would have agreed about Ference too (he’s been my whipping boy for the past couple of seasons now), but he’s playing huge minutes this season, certainly earning a little more of the money he’s being handed. Highest +/- of our D-core. Still overpaid but not as angering.
Back to Wheeler, I don’t see an overly soft game from him this season. He’s been given a new role and I think he’s doing it well. As for sporadic efforts, most big men give you that passionless look here and there. Thornton still never looks like he’s trying (I realize his proven production excuses this, but maybe go back and look at his point totals in season’s 1-5).

When I use the term hockey IQ, I’m just saying that there is rarely a situation on the ice he isn’t prepared for. How many times do you see Wheeler looking lost? It’s rare. He plays our system to a tee, from any forward position, kills penalties and fills the lanes well, which results in his decent shot-block totals. Personally, even given his current contribution, I think he’s justified at $2.2 million. If you compare him to similar talent around the league, he fares quite well. There are some steals out there but nearly all of them involve players still making entry level money. All of whom will demand far more than $2.2 million when those are up.
What young power forward would you prefer?
Zajac – $3.5 and 13 points.
Gaustad – $2.5 and 9 points
Fehr – $2.2 and 10 points
Bolland – $3.3 and 9 points
Wolski – $3.6 and 14 points
That’s what else is out there…

In a quick roster check I found 2 guys, making the same money who I would prefer. James Neal in Dallas and David Backes in St.Lou. I love both these guys’ game. Both also play far bigger minutes, on their top lines (and PP’s) which helps their offensive numbers greatly.

I mean, here we are arguing 3rd line guys. Don’t see that as a bad thing. Everyone sees what they see and I’m sure we could both argue either side until we’re blue in the face. I may over-access Wheeler, but you’re certainly doing the same with Sturm. Even healthy, I’m still taking Wheeler’s game and skill-set (at $1.3 million less), over Sturm’s. Hand’s down. I’m quite confident most GMs would agree with me too.

FYI- It’s a really big jump from AHL to NHL even bigger from Juniors. Lot of folks think guys like Caron, Colborne, Hammil are just going to jump in and produce right away. I trust B’s management, there’s obviously a reason these guys are in Prov.
At the time Ryder signed his contract there were other teams offering the same price. 4mil was the market at the time. Ryder came here to work with Julien.
Ference is logging major minutes on an underwhelming D. I would like to see what other comparable players are getting paid.

I have no problems with what they got in return for Sturm. It’s business and salary had to be cut, it’s as simple as that. He’s most likely not going to be playing at his highest level as a Bruin (’05-’06 51 games played 43 points .84 points/game or ’07-’08 80 games played 52 points .65 points/game) Last year he played 76 games had 37 points for .48 points/game. How many chances did he have that he didn’t finish? I seem to remember quite a few, actually a frustratingly high number. I don’t see that changing this season.
Lets not even get into the fact that he’s damaged goods, who has a really high chance of getting hurt again, not to jinx him or anything, but that’s what the stats show for that type of injury.
Yes, he was a great Bruin and a great guy in the community, but that doesn’t put pucks in the back of the net or bring championship hardware to town in the early summer months. At that salary, that’s a lot of money to paying someone for sentimentality sakes. If you can get the same production, in all facets of his game, at a cheaper price between a couple of players, then that move has to be made in a salary cap league.

I think people don’t like Wheeler because he plays soft and sporadic. Stop listing his physcial stats. He has a high hockey IQ? What does that even mean? They mean nothing if he does nothing with them. He isn’t 20. Some believe he will never reach his potential (which is through the roof). I don’t see passion from him night in night out. I wouldn’t kick him to the curb but I would trade him for a No. 2 defenseman, which this team desperately needs. Caron can do what Wheeler does and so if Wheeler was traded, the loss would be mitigated. Wheeler needs to get it up in the next year or so, or he will be put on the scrap heap. He needs to play with far more intensity. He can dominate in this league and most of the time it looks like he doesn’t because he doesn’t feel like it. I don’t see a lot of effort from him.

As for bad contracts, it begins and ends with Ryder. He isn’t worth 4 million per season. If you are paid 4 million per season and your only job is to score goals (because he rarely if ever plays any sort of defense), then you had bette score a lot of goals. He was a ghost last season and is all of a sudden playing better in a contract season. I am not sure I put Sturm in ahead of him right now (Sturm can’t even play for a few more weeks), but Ryder is not safe in my mind. If a trade possibility comes up and they need cap space to fit in a pricey No. 1 or 2 defenseman, I would put Ryder in Providence. I don’t like his game and can’t wait for that contract to be over.

The Paille deal was terrible. He is overpaid by about 500k and the two-year aspect of the deal is insane. I like bringing Stuart back where they did.

After Ryder, the worst contract on the team is clearly Ference. He is barely worth half of the money he earns.

I would love to have kept Sturm around as injury insurance. I think he was offered the spot in Providence and then a recall based on injury and he declined. Chia fulfilled his wishes and he is now a King. He won’t score 10 goals this season. Move on. If he were healthy, only an insane person would choose Wheeler over Sturm. But Sturm isn’t healthy, so the choice is simple.

Ooops… I meant to say “… a great point…” in my opening line above.
Also, with regards to our salary “issues”, look at a team like the Leafs, with all that youth and not much talent and they’re right up against it. Things could be worse…

Someone above made a point saying that we have Wheeler and Paille for the same amount as Sturm…
I feel like a broken record on here, but all of this Wheeler hatred astounds me. Ryder I understand because of his salary, but even he is worth it if he can get us 30 goals, playing on the 3rd line. I think he’ll get 25, but 30 from a 3rd line guy would be beautiful.
As for Wheeler, I think he is blossoming nicely. Love his skill set. (Here I go again) He’s 6’5”, a great skater, who can kill penalties, has a high hockey-IQ and can shoot the puck. He just needs to go with Lucic’s mentality and shoot more because he has a great shooting %. He’s also behind only Campbell and Bergeron when it come to forwards blocking shots.
I think he’s got more potential than a Brooks Laich. I see him as a potential Ryan Kesler. Both of those guys took 4-5 seasons to craft their game.
I’m willing to be patient with Wheeler.
Ryder we are stuck with cause we’re certainly not gonna just give him away like Sturm. His contract is up at the end of the season and frees up that 4+mil to go get another winger everyone here hopefully deems worthy.
I think Chia is doing a great job personally. I think he’s done a great job putting together a talented line-up, under the cap. With Sturm gone, I think we even have some breathing room now to make a deal. Plus we have some exciting players ready to step in and replace outgoing contracts, if we need to be fiscal.

I don’t get all the hating on Wheeler and Ryder this season. Yeah, they were terrible last season, but everybody was except for Bergeron, Recchi, Boychuk and Rask.

Wheeler is pretty sound defensively and has been in on a lot of offense this season, although he doesn’t shoot as much as I’d like. And during the playoffs last year he learned to throw his big body around a bit, which I like too.

Ryder is basically the same as Sturm. Both are overpaid (although Ryder has always been overpaid, Sturm only recently), both are incredibly streaky, both are 25 goal scorers at best. Sturm is faster, a better skater, and more emotional, but he’s also older and a lot more fragile. As much as I loved Sturm, the Bruins did the right thing in trading him and keeping Ryder around this season. I don’t see much chance of the Bruins re-signing him, and some other team will no doubt overpay him, especially if he continues to have a decent season.

Having said all that, the cap situation was and is a big mess. Ference WTF. Those Boychuk and Stuart numbers are looking pretty high right now too. Paille is such an enigma, but he’s probably worth $1m if he were actually playing. If not for Lucic’s career year — and hopefully a trend which will continue — his current salary would look pretty bad in this context too.

Berg- Recchi-Wheels have done nothing but be inconsistent. I would have sent Ryder to Providence nobody would’ve claimed his 4Mil salary then brought him back up for the playoffs were he couldn’t have been re-claimed on re-entry waivers with the black aces.

Chiarelli’s way is to keep players like Ryder and Wheeler when they’ve been beaten out by Caron. No trust in calling up kids but he and Julien play career minor leaguer mucker Whitfield.

In all fairness, paille was actually one of the Bruin’s more consistent players last year, in terms of defensive play, and that hasn’t actually gotten all that much worse this year. So I do understand why they signed him to some degree; it’s a bet they lost. Also, Wheeler isn’t as bad as everyone seems to think he is. He’s a good defensive forward, and has great hands. He apparently suffers from bouts of amnesia about how scoring works, but should turn into a real good player. Vladdy or Campbell who would you prefer? (Vladdy can’t play wing to save his life). As for Ferrence, I want his agent to get me a deal somewhere. I still don’t get how that works in our favor in any way shape or form.

I’ve been a bruins fan since 1988 and after reading this article I’m kind of shocked. Shocked that you defend Marco Sturm. Sturm is highly overrated, yes he’s a 20 goal scorer but he gets a lot of empty net goals. His finish is mediocre at best and most of his goals are slap shots after blazing d own the wing and actually hitting the net which is completely rare for him.
He’s a good penalty killer but he takes the dumbest most momentum killing penalties. He took that spot from Martin Lapointe.

Blake Wheeler at 2 million has a better overall game. He draws penalties, he works better with Berg and Recchi. Wheeler and Paille combined have a smaller cap hit then Sturm. The Sturm deal was one of the worst on the team. Ryder’s up there as well but at least Ryder is a legitimate sniper and he plays better with Savard then miss the net sturm.

Good Riddance to Marco Sturm, we’ve always been a better team when he’s not in the lineup

wheeler, paille, and ference are the biggest head scratchers. with seguin near-guaranteed a spot and the ability to give colborne/marchand/hamill/caron the other spot how do they justify those two contracts? also the decision to sign ference came in the middle of a season where he was ineffective and injured, admittedly he has played well stretches of this year a 2+ million player he is not. wheeler can’t hit the broad side of a barn and paille is just crappy why did the brass re-up these two and trade vladdy? they may value the “experience” of crappy players over the ambition and drive of youth that marchand, kampfer and the other young guys have shown. i think it has a lot to do with the julien/chiarelli axis of conservative team management.